Pop Culture Blog

Farewell to Larry L. King, one of Texas’ greatest writers … and hell-raisers

In the October 13, 1968, edition of The Dallas Morning News, then-book critic Lon Tinkle reviewed a collection of essays titled … And Other Dirty Stories, and wrote that its author, a Texas Tech graduate-turned-journalist-turned-Congressional aide named Larry L. King, was a “social necessity.” He compared King to Honoré de Balzac, to H. L. Mencken — the greats. In time, though, King would become best known for penning a little something titled The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He loved the play, hated the movie.

That is how most of his obituaries will likely begin, as Larry L. King died yesterday at a retirement facility in Washington at the age of 83. According to The Washington Post, he had emphysema.

King was many things: journalist, novelist, playwright, hell-raiser among them. As Matt Schudel writes this morning: “He was also known for his outsized personality, full-bore drinking and an ability to tell outrageously droll stories in a profanity-laced drawl that was almost indistinguishable from his writing voice.”

King, goes the legend, once tried to shrug off the label of “Texas writer” and set out to write the Great New York City Novel. Halfway through, the hero of his tome boarded a plane for Austin. “And suddenly I just stopped and thought, ‘I guess I am a goddamn Texas writer.’” He said that being a Texan is “like being a hooker. You can quit whoring and they still call you a whore.”

Below is a terrific profile of King, which appeared in The News on April 13, 1980, and was written by the great Sam Attlesey. Its headline: “Of outlaws, con men, whores and Larry L. King.” Of Kools and Buds too.